Nemanja Matic has praised Manchester United's latest batch of promising youngsters and described them as 'the future of the club.' The veteran midfielder has been put through his paces by many academy players in the past week, as they helped make up the numbers in training over the international break.
With so many senior stars away at national team level, United's coaches decided to give a whole host of teenagers the chance to train as part of the first-team. D'Mani Mellor, Marc Jurado, Charlie Wellens, Joe Hugill, Mateo Mejia, Noam Emeran, Bjorn Hardley, Rhys Bennett, Connor Stanley and Shola Shoretire were all spotted in the official training pictures last week.
The batch of youngsters still have plenty of work to do if they are to ever secure a permanent role in the senior setup but Matic is impressed with what he has seen from them so far.
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“The guys that have been training with us are Manchester United players, they are the future of this club, so it’s always nice to see them training with us,” he told United Review.
“And it’s also good for them, to see where they are; to compare themselves with the senior team. So, for me, that’s always good.
“Being with the young players makes me feel that I am younger! The energy they have is fantastic and they transfer that to us.
“I need to try to help the young ones. To help them improve, to be better and better every day. When I was their age, the older players tried to help me, so I think that needs to be natural.
“I hate players who think that when they stop football, that the football will not exist anymore. So footballers always need to improve, and we need to try to help every young player to be better than us.”
